Your Bud Light is now made with Sunlight!

The Anheuser-Busch brewery on U.S. 1-9 dates to 1951, and the company is a century older than that. But behind the Newark, N.J., facility’s redbrick walls lies plenty of new technology–alongside the traditional beechwood aging tanks, of course.

The 3.2 million-square-foot brewery now gets up to 5% of its electricity from 3,000 photovoltaic solar panels covering 65,000 square feet of its massive roof. The array produces a maximum of 530 kilowatts of power–enough for 62 average New Jersey homes.

That’s not all. Construction is underway to roughly double the size of the power system at the Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD, ABI.BT) facility in a deal with Orion Energy Systems (OESX), the builder and proprietor of the solar rig.

Soon, drinkers downing a cold one from the facility, which brews Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob Ultra, Busch, Busch Light, Natural Light, Natural Ice, King Cobra, Rolling Rock and Rock Light will be imbibing a beverage made with up to 10% solar power.

The Newark site’s general manager, Kristopher Scholl, said engineers, executives and brewers at the company had been studying solar power for years before giving a green light to the project.

“It’s very important for us to invest in that kind of technology,” Scholl said in an interview at the brewery, plainly visible from Newark Liberty International Airport across the highway.

The solar panels fit into an overall philosophy of conserving energy at the plant. Back in 1985, the Newark brewery started using its wastewater to make biogas to fire its boilers. That process now meets about 15% of the brewery’s fuel needs.

“There’s always going to be pressures with energy costs going up and with resources becoming scarce and prices going up,” Scholl said. “It’s great to have options to go to such as renewable energy. We see that investment as something to ensure our sustainability in the future.”

Anheuser-Busch inked its power-purchase agreement with Orion to save capital costs in the construction of the solar panels, Scholl said. “They have made the capital investment, installed it and are the operators of the system,” he said. “We purchase the power from Orion at a beneficial rate. And that’s where Anheuser-Busch is getting some efficiency from a cost standpoint.”

During a tour of the brewery’s rooftop, Scholl pointed out how Orion’s solar modules are made up of long glass tubes. The slippery, cylindrical design cuts down on wind resistance and reduces the need for heavy metal frames. Inside a rooftop control room, the power of the solar panels is recorded with a digital readout. Even on a cloudy day, electricity is produced.

Angiolo Laviziano, chief executive of the San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based solar-installation firm REC Solar, said solar power’s appeal to traditional industries such as brewing continues to pick up steam. He said about 40% of his company’s business comes from power-purchase agreements.

Power-purchase agreements often free up big companies from having to finance the cost of solar panels and increasing their debt load.

“We’ve been working with Fortune 500 companies like Costco (COST) and Nestle (NESN.VX),” he said. “Some of them are happy to finance it off their balance sheets, so they don’t get a loan.”

A number of government programs also help make solar more attractive and cane be passed on to customers in the form of lower electricity rates under power-purchase agreements, he said.

The federal government offers a tax credit worth up to 30% of the cost of the solar-power installation. If a company spends $5 million on a solar array, the program means they can write off $1.5 million in costs on their taxable income.

Many states also have rules that require utilities to pay for solar power generated during periods of peak loads–essentially, during such times, an electric meter can run backward if a company isn’t consuming all its solar power. Under these regulations, some companies qualify for a 12%-to-15% drop in electricity rates.

States also have tradable certificates for the power being produced in a solar system. In New Jersey, for example, companies receive payments in the form of renewable-energy certificates, which have a value in the emissions-trading marketplace.

For Scholl, the plant manager in Newark, these programs helped make solar power practical.

“That’s the great thing about renewable energy: Not only is it the right thing to do, [but] it contributes to a better world,” he said.